In conventional endoscopes, for example the endoscope disclosed in DE 42 11 547 A1, the difficulty exists that contaminants may collect on the inner side of the cover and on the optic element of the imaging optic closest to the cover, which significantly worsen the imaging quality. Such contaminants may particularly occur due to the required autoclaving, in which the endoscope or at least the shaft is sterilized for multiple minutes in saturated water steam at up to 140° C. These conditions may result in contaminants detaching from the interior of the endoscope shaft, accumulating, and thus leading to undesired worsening in the imaging, for example.